#Tweetabletakeaway

As we push forward in 2014, we are intent in continuing our self-education, that is, learning and exploring all things related to our craft of inbound marketing and social media. This week ,we spent some time refreshing our knowledge around writing quality blog content.

Blog content writing is both simple and complicated. Although we’ve been writing for ourselves and our clients for some time, it’s always a good idea to refresh even the basics. Problogger has extensive lists of ideas for keeping it quality and getting your blog seen. He’s shared some of my favorite blogging tips. Check them out!

Keep in mind your reader attention span & SEO.

Sweet spot: 300+ words and less than 1,000 – It’s a broad range, but right on.

Make scannable posts by using lists, formats, and pics to draw the gaze down the page. (But in the words of Bon Qui Qui, “Don’t get crazy.”)

“Say your point up front; don’t bury it.” This is a good reminder that I often tell myself when my English Lit mind wants to pen a lofty introduction and make the reader work a little. But no, you gotta say what you gotta say before the reader moves on. This isn’t a novel; you don’t get a whole chapter before Joe Reader gives it up. There are other ways to intrigue readers. Hence, the next point.

CREATIVEly reinforce your point. And mind your SEO while you do it. Or at least when you edit.

Write enough to “comprehensively cover your topic, then stop.”

And I love the analogy that Problogger adapts from the LifeDev blog: letting blog post ideas marinate will help you push past shallow, one-dimensional posts and deliver original material with depth and flavor. Yes! I’ve been writing for 17 years, and this is still something I work on. Hurriedly meeting a deadline can pressure cook some great bits of writing out onto the page, but if you stop there, you are selling yourself short and whoever or whatever you are writing for. This was my MO in college–I didn’t understand the value in allowing a concept to develop. That takes time, which also takes forethought. (I also wasn’t much of a cook.)

Writing blogs for a business website, especially in the case of small or medium-sized business, is too often an afterthought–a microwave dinner in this comparison. This is understandable when you are trying to squeeze it onto your already full To Do list. Unfortunately, that misses the opportunities that blog writing can attract for a business.

We value what great blog content can do for the web presence of a business. (That’s why we offer the service.) It’s important to be consistent and thoughtful and of course, get it out there on social media. Most anyone can write a blog, but it takes mindful finesse to consistently deliver quality content that hits SEO marks and is entertaining. And if you don’t have the time or write-power to devote to it, it’s better to hire out than to serve the blog equivalent of frozen corn dogs.